Star Trek - The Final Frontier (Beta 1.0)

[rjord2021]

Below is an early concept of V'ger as it will appear in the mod.

As V'ger approaches it's detination (eg Earth) it begins slowing down and the cloud surrounding V'ger reduces dramatically until we see V'ger itself which is around 97 km in length where the Enterprise is around 290 metres long.

I will be adjusting the size of V'ger after I have tested the final version of V'ger and worked out how and where it will appear in the mod.

The picture below is a very early concept of how V'ger appears in the mod and I have to add more effects such as lighting and cloud effects as seen in The Motion Picture. I am also keeping mind that The Motion Picture was a decade after the Kirk TV era so V'ger will be less developed when it appear in this mod.

V'ger has been associated with the Borg in many ways and I am doing a little spin on V'ger to try and link all the speculation together about how V'ger and the Borg were created. The Borg were created in the 1400's so Voyager 6 would have had to go back in time if it indeed was responsible for creating the Borg race.

[rjord2021]

Every ship for all 75 playable races has been resized using the design templates.......

Now to test them during gameplay and make any adjustments in size.
The aim is to scale the ships and bases correctly as long as I can find the correct dimensions for the ship or base.

Have tested the ships for the Federation and really happy with the outcome.

[rjord2021]

A screenshot from current alpha testing of the mod

The Enterprise arrived in an unexplored system and discovered an M-Class World containing a civilization of around 11 million humanoids who refer to themselves as Vulcans.

As the Enterprise orbits Vulcan, Kirk talks with T'Pau who makes it clear that the Enterprise and her crew are not welcome on Vulcan and that they will be fired upon if the ship does not leave orbit.

This is one of the scenarios where the Vulcans are not happy with Starfleet wishing to make First Contact.

The Vulcans are annoyed with the Federation, are a very aggressive species, quite intelligent but extremely unfriendly.

Kirk sends the Vulcans a gift to improve relations with the Vulcans and makes a note in the captain's Log that Federation ambassadors will be required to further improve relations.

Somewhere on the surface of Vulcan, Spock is preparing to board a Vulcan Science vessel on a short mission to catalog a nearby star system.

I seem to have lost the flags for the Empires so I need to add them back in again.

The dialog for the Vulcans also needs to be added in again so they sound like the Vulcans.

The border around the picture of T'Pau below will be changed tomorrow to show the blue border surrounding the Enterprise's View Screen. This is because visual contact with T'Pau would have been shown on the Enterprises main view screen.

[rjord2021]

Encountering the Romulans...... this is the first time that the Federation and Romulans have actually seen what each race looks like. Some on the Enterprise bridge query why Romulans look similar to the recently discovered Vulcan race.

- Temporary flags added for each race but not finalized

- WIP on the text in yellow to follow procedures on the Enterprise when contacting another race.

[rjord2021]

The Romulans declare war against the Federation......

The Federation cruiser USS Constellation is deep within Romulan space when it is recalled urgently by Star Fleet.

However the Constellation is too late in escaping as two Birds of Prey intercept the ship and block it from warping away.

One Bird of Prey approaches from the starboard side and unleashes plasma torpedoes which strike the Constellation shields which flare red with each strike.

Gripping the arms of the captains chair as the ship rocks with another torpedo hit, Matthew Decker instructs Communications Officer Howard to send out a distress signal asking for immediate assistance from other Federation ships nearby.

[rjord2021]

As the shields on the starboard side weaken further, the Constellation turns to the port side heading towards a Bird of Prey that appears to be damaged and has not taken part in the battle...yet.

The ship rocks again as the rear deflector shields are hit by a plasma torpedo from the Bird of Prey circling behind them.

[rjord2021]

Starfleet responds to the Distress Signal received from the Constellation and orders two Federation frigates nearby to provide assistance to the Constellation.

[rjord2021]

As the Frigates warp to the aid of the Constellation, another Federation ship encounters a lone Bird of Prey which fires it's torpedoes at close range.

The Federation ship rocks as the torpedo impacts against the forward Deflector Shield.

Meanwhile back in the Sol system Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise have boarded the starship and are preparing to leave space dock.

[rjord2021]

As the Federation battles with the Romulan Empire, T'Pau from Vulcan imposes trade sanctions on the Federation..... a move which will most certainly hurt the Federation during a time of war.

[rjord2021]

A new civilization is discovered and they are a warrior race known as the Klingons.

Desperate to find allies in their war with the Romulans, the Federation agrees to meet Klingon ambassadors which results in a Klingon Federation alliance being formed.

However the alliance is still shaky so Starfleet sends the Enterprise on its first mission into Klingon space to improve relations with the Klingons.

[rjord2021]

As the Enterprise arrives in Klingon space and approaches the Klingon home world of Kronos, the sensors detect a huge subspace shock wave heading towards the Enterprise.

Kirk moves the Enterprise out of danger and the ship receives a transmission from the Klingon moon Praxis.

"This is Brigadier Kerla speaking for the High Command. There has been an incident on Praxis. However, everything is under control, we have no need for assistance. Obey our wishes and do not approach Praxis. This transmission ends now."



This is one of the rare events that occur when entering Klingon space for the first time and will happen when you play the role play side of the game. This is determined by dice role so Praxis will not necessarily blow up every time...there is only an 8% chance of it happening.

When Praxis explodes you change the image for Praxis to the one shown below and then at a specified time you change the image to one that shows the destroyed moon.

This event also changes the Klingon attitude towards the Federation unless the Klingons have an alliance with the Romulans or Vulcan

Steps required to do this will be included in the mod documentation.

[rjord2021]

The Whale Probe from Star Trek IV appears in the mod but a decade early.

Originally this probe was a danger to Earth alone and should not effect other races....however this is going to change with the mod with a different storyline to Star Trek IV and whales.

[rjord2021]

The Federation ship shown below has taken damage from battle with the Romulans and the indicator at the bottom left shows 3 components were damaged.

When this happens for any of the Federation ships I then go into role play to get detailed analysis of what systems were damaged and if any crew were injured or killed.

The results will determine what happens to the ship as it may be stranded in Romulan space unable to move with no warp or impulse engines and photon torpedoes offline.

To determine which section of the ship I need to check for damage I look at the damage on the ship.

Most of the damage is on the saucer section followed by damage to the right nacelle.

This is one example of how the events that happen in role play are determined by what happens in Distant Worlds.

[rjord2021]

Finishing the testing today with one more screenshot.

Federation Cruisers exploring distant systems first made contact with the Betazoids and then recently with a race known as The Cardassian First Republic.
This is the name the Cardassians were known as in the TOS era.


The status of the Federation after several hours of alpha testing.


- The war with the Romulans continue and the Federation has been helped by the Vulcans declaring war on the Romulans.
- The Vulcans have just changed their relationship with the Federation and they are now pleased with us.
- This means that soon Mr Spock will join Starfleet and transfer over to the Enterprise as First Officer.
- Federation relationship with the Klingons is good and they are pleased with us but with some reservations.
- The Betazoids are annoyed with us and do not trust our alien ways.
- The Cardassians are angry with us and unless we send ambassadors to Cardassia we may soon be in a war with them.


Testing of the mod is going well.

The problem is that while the Federation is surging ahead of the other races for setting up new colonies in the quadrant the Federation is at the bottom of the list when looking at Military Strength.

The races leading in Military Strength is surprising and is as follows with the strongest races at the top and weakest race at the end.

1. Betazoids
2. Romulans
3. Vulcans
4. Klingons
5. Cardassians
6 Federation

This needs to be looked at quickly as the Betazoids and Romulans easily have double our military strength.

[rjord2021]

4468 files updated in the Design Templates folder........ that took a while to do......

[rjord2021]

Started Day 2 of testing and this time the Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans were randomly placed and not nearby Federation space.
Added 20 random races to appear in this game.
This will test the game performance with ships scaled to 250 in size.

The first race encountered were the El-Aurians. It is the year 2265 and the El-Aurian race have just been almost wiped out by the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. A small group of El-Aurians had fled into the Beta Quadrant and their colony was in the process of rebuilding the El-Aurian society. The Federation made contact with them however the El-Aurians had shortly afterwards imposed trade sanctions against us. The Enterprise has been tasked to transport Federation ambassadors to El-Aurian space to try and further relations with the El-Aurian colony.

Meanwhile somewhere on the surface of their homeworld, Guinan knows that the Borg have been tracking the El-Aurian refugee ships that had fled the Delta Quadrant and Guinan knew it would not be long before a fleet of Borg cubes tracked them to the Beta Quadrant.

[rjord2021]

Over the following year Federation Cruisers and survey vessels discover many worlds where El-Aurian refugees have setup colonies. Our attempts to improve relations with the El-Aurians have been successful and our ambassadors are still working with Guinan who is the temporary elected Leader of the El-Aurian people.

In other news, Federation archaeologists exploring distant planets have stumbled across hibernation chambers deep below the surface of the planet. It appears that an entire civilization of over a million people have for some reason entered a state of hibernation.

The Enterprise has been dispatched at the request of Starfleet so that Doctor McCoy can oversee the initial process of waking up a few of the sleeping chambers and running medical exams on them. Kirk will then determine the reason for why a million people went into hibernation when ship sensors had determined there had been no ecological disaster facing the planet.

In other news, science vessels in the 17 Aquilae system have found 6 refugee ships adrift in space containing survivors fleeing their planet after an unknown alien race began attacking the planet. Ambassadors and Councillors have been sent to the system to assist the refugees who call themselves "The Vian".

[rjord2021]

Federation vessels have made contact with a strange new species called the Fotallians who originated on the planet Regulus VIII before being forced to leave the planet after depleting much needed resources.

Once a mighty race of over a billion people the Fotallian race almost became extinct when salt became a rare commodity on Regulus VIII. To save their race the Fotallians developed warp engine technology and scoured the galaxy for other worlds containing resources of salt.

The Fotallians are a race that generally keep to themselves but are known to resort to anything when they sense salt.

In the TOS era they are sometimes referred to as Salt Vampires or M-113 creatures and were seen in the TOS episode: "The Man Trap".

[rjord2021]

The Andorians have been discovered on a colony world with a population of over 13 million people. The race appears to have a number of gifted scientists on Andoria and Starfleet Command recognizes the importance of allying with the Andorians.

The Enterprise has completed it's mission to begin the process of waking up a million Ardanans from their hibernation chambers. With scientific teams now down on the planet taking over the operation, the Enterprise leaves orbit with a course set for Andoria to begin diplomatic relations with the Andorians.

[rjord2021]

How to implement Stardates into Distant Worlds .
------------------------------------------------

When I play this mod I write down significant events in the Captain's Log (which will be included in the mod) so I can keep track of significant events such as when Spock transfers across to the Enterprise or what stardate the Klingons declare war on the Federation. The realism of the mod is enhanced when you refer to the dates in stardate format instead of as year, month and day.

When you look at the date in the top left corner of the screen (in the format YYYY.MM.DD you will see how quickly each day passes.

For my mod I am reducing this speed by a factor of 1.5 when calculating the stardates. This will accurately calculate the change in stardate for each day that passes and slows down how quickly each day passes in stardate terms.

The resulting stardate roughly matches the change in stardate shown for each year in the TOS episodes on tv.

The picture below shows the calculations I use to quickly work out the correct stardate at any given time of the mod and you can add this into Excel so you can calculate a new stardate in seconds just by changing the YMD date.


The picture shows how to calculate the stardate after playing the mod for example exactly one year later.
The mod starts at stardate 1312.4 and exactly one year later the new stardate is 3019.4

How accurate are my calculations?
The pilot episode for Kirk was the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Date October 2266 stardate 1312.4
Exactly a year later was the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday" Date October 2267 stardate 3113.2
The difference is less than a third of a day to the actual stardates in the TOS episodes.